This invention relates generally to the field of room environment control and more specifically to open top liquid/gas cyclone separator tube and process for same. It has been known for centuries that food products deteriorate in quality on the shelf or in storage over time. The length of time it takes for the deterioration process is affected by the rate of food destroying pathogen population and regeneration. The length of time for preservation of food products in storage can be increased by the application of thermodynamic factors such as temperature, pressure and humidity. Refrigeration was discovered to increase the time for preservation of food products before its affect on microscopic pathogens was well understood. It has since been determined that (FILL IN WITH THERMODYNAMIC INFORMATION)
The most popular and effective preservation method for food products has been refrigeration. Keeping raw food products at low temperatures exponentially decreases the growth rate of product destroying pathogens and the products have been preserved for longer periods. Fresh food products must be kept at a delicate temperature range that is constantly above freezing and below a temperature that contributes to the rapid growth of pathogens. Since the production of food products has evolved into fewer and larger farms and storage facilities, the lack of thermodynamic knowledge of growers and the exuberant promotion by suppliers has moved preservation methods into larger and more powerful air handling facilities and mechanisms. Storage facilities for raw food products have been increased in size and capacity, costing upwards of $1 million per facility. These large facilities have been scaled both in size of storage area and also the size and capacity of air handling plenums used for air circulation.
Raw food product storage environment and product preservation has been addressed by opportunists more than by sound engineering. The industry has been addressing product volume that does not affect the environment instead of air volume that does. In potato storage units, fans have been increased in capacity of movement to as much as 2,200 cubic feet of air per minute per ton of potatoes. This translates to 165,000 cubic feet of air per minute in a 75 ton capacity storage unit. Assuming that there is 25% of the total air capacity of the unit left after it is full of product, the turnover rate would be approximately 3 times per minute, a substantial overkill that can be effective only for cooling purposes and not for environmental control. The running of these high capacity fans dries out the product and also moves pathogens from diseased products to healthy ones throughout the storage facility, thereby spreading and increasing the probability of product destroying diseases into every location of the facility. In an attempt to hold the humidity up in the storage while blowing high volumes of air through the product, the industry has provide atomizing impellers that atomize as much as 30 gallons of water per minute per unit. The smallest of droplets that can be produced by an efficient atomizer is approximately ten microns in diameter. Larger droplets are readily affected by gravity, pulling them to the floor of the facility and the ventilation tubes. The excess water provides a welcome environment for pathogens to reproduce and increase in population. Such a high volume of water only serves to wet the floors and walls of the plenums since the air will only contain a small amount of water, the capacity depending on the temperature in the facility. The only factor applicable to the humidity of the air in the facility with this method is evaporation. The evaporation rate decreases in the facility as temperature decreases because cold air holds much less water that warm air. Hence there has been a major overkill in an attempt to preserve potato and vegetable products in storage and a great deal of water is wasted in these processes.
In 2005, Isaacs patented a device, U.S. Pat. No. 6,905,537, to be used in the emissions control industries that effected the collection of vapors, dust, heavy metals and other particles from industrial emissions and room environments. The use of this device for the control of pathogens in a food storage facility was not effectively applicable before the present invention was created to preserve the humidity in a storage room, for the recycling of the air and the controlled application of additives to the environment.